Quarta-feira 8 Set 2010, 20h:23

Wed 8 Sep – Janelle Monáe, Wolf Gang

Am breaking mine own self-imposed conventions regarding journalizing for 2010 here, because more than a few things contributed to a most lovely day today. Firstly, the weather proved rather serendipitous with regards to my music listening at work, my first listen of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's seminal album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven being accompanied by the kind of gorgeous muggy brown-grey sky and torrential rain that no epic-drone album can do without. However, such beauteousness was to be subsumed when the downpour finally ceased and the sun burst through the clouds just in time for my playlist devoted to one Miss Janelle Monáe, whose gig at KOKO in Camden I'd previously arranged to see with two of my good last.fm friends (they know who they are… ;^]) I'd been following Monáe's progress from diminutive OutKast protégé to fledgling pop star for more than a couple of years now, and whilst the delivery of her wondrous major-label debut LP, The ArchAndroid (Suites II And III Of IV), would have satiated my appetite plenty, her gigging but a couple of miles away from me proved too hard to ignore.

And what a performance it was. After spending a good hour chatting with my fellow giggers under the crisp night sky of London via the KOKO balcony overlooking Mornington Crescent about all kinds of web-related music geekery (even if it dwelt a bit too long on those porno-rific slash-fiction Beiber shots), we shuffled inside to the upper realms of Camden's most prolific nightspot, only to be greeted by an even-more musically prodigious a force of nature that the three of us had previously listened to at home. Though it was more of a mini-concert focusing on the first two suites of her "Metropolis" saga (charting the life, death and messianic resurrection via time-travel of her android alter-ego, Cindi Mayweather), with little more than a killer guitarist, double-duty keyboardist/bassist and a rather phenomenal drummer (and the odd dancer from The Palace Of The Dogs asylum featured in the Tightrope (Feat. Big Boi) video), Monáe and her posse made sure the mêlée stayed rocking for the entire set. Only really granting the audience a breather with her stunning rendition of Charlie Chaplin's Smile (wherein she revealed she can most certainly out-warble any octave-vaulting diva around today), the energy was infectious, the music powerful and Monáe's presence undeniably enthralling.

For those who were there (shame on you if you weren't!), here's the setlist:

Dance Or Die
Faster
Locked Inside
Smile
Sincerely, Jane.
Wondaland
Mushrooms & Roses
Cold War
Tightrope
Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!
Many Moons
Come Alive (War Of Roses)

That isn't including the interludes/overtures that gave Monáe the opportunity to collect herself between breaks, and sorry that support band Wolf Gang didn't get much of a mention either (for what it's worth, they sounded okay from outside), but this was Janelle's night. Bounding around the stage with the prowess of a born entertainer and an exceptionally mean little dancer (her moonwalk in particular threw the crowd into hysterical applause), the near-complete lack of audience interaction was rendered moot by the relentless pace of the production, the first three songs in particular bleeding into one another to create a frenzied medley much like they do on the album. Capping it all off with a stage dive into the rapturous crowd followed by an almighty slamming of her mic-stand into the stage floor, Janelle left not one person in the 1400+ crowd unimpressed with her showmanship. When she returns to London in a bigger venue with a doubtless more enigmatic and intricate set-up that the thematic qualities of her album frankly demands, let's hope it's not at the sacrifice of the sheer verve and energy this woman and her core band offered up to the concertgoers lucky enough to marvel at them tonight. Pure spellbinding delight.